Posts Made By: David Cotterell

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

I looked  at the numbers because I was curious if your implied claim held any water:

"In fiscal year 2020 (October 1, 2019 - September 30, 2020), the US government allocated $51.05 billion US dollars in economic and military assistance to foreign countries. Of this total, $39.41 billion dollars was spent on economic assistance, $25.64 billion of which was dispersed by USAID. The remaining $11.64 billion dollars was spent on military assistance" - Wikipedia

"The U.S. government's total revenue is estimated to be $4.71 trillion for FY 2023... (State taxes are not in this number, just federal)

And math:   51 050 000 000. divided by  4 710 000 000 000 = 0.0108 or, as a percent, 1.08%

Your bucket's got a hole in it, Richard.

Dave

OK, James.  Same fiscal year for both numbers: I found total US revenue for 2020 of 3.4 trillion in 2020, and the 51.05 billion from my OP still stands.

So my math becomes 51.05 billion divided by 3.4 trillion which yields  1.5%  instead of the 1.08% I stated in my O.P.  

I think my point was that the percentage is small.  1.08% and 1.5% are both tiny percentages.

Canada's numbers (since someone brought it up) for 2020:  revenue 166.75 Billion CAD, foreign aid 6.6 Billion CAD =  3.96%
2020 was the last 'normal' fiscal year before things went hairy with Covid and now the Ukraine war...

Bucket still leaking...

Dave

The Pentagon lost track of $220B in military hardware it gave out to military contractors.  Roughly 4 times the amount sent overseas in aid.

$220 Billion Dollars.

Perspective

Dave

Originally Posted by Brian McFarland

$220B given to military contractors?  What contractors?  I've been working as a military contractor for various companies for my entire career and I've never seen the Government give military H/W to contractors.  Where did you get this tidbit of information? And where's my bazooka?

Just read the article for an explanation.

Dave

Originally Posted by Brian McFarland

I didn't realize your phrase in blue was actually a link.

The link is to the Longview News-Journal which references a report to the GAO (this would have been a better link) in which they're talking about GFP (Gov Furnished Property) and GFE (Gov Furnished Equipment), which in my experience is usually test equipment and things like that. I find those numbers hard to believe (I'm not saying they aren't true!) because we have to track that stuff, and it's taken very seriously.  Typically the tracking paperwork alone weighs about as much as the hardware in question (slight exaggeration), and involves monthly reports detailing what, where, when everything is along with value, serial numbers, etc.  It's hard for me to see how anything can go missing.  Having said that, my experience is Navy. Maybe the different services treat this stuff differently? The Space Force probably lost all that crap - LOL

Brian

With this guy in charge I'm not surprised...





Dave

Originally Posted by James Lacey:   "Social change is inevitable; the overarching theme is inclusion, tolerance, and liberalism."Darian Rachal

James, what happens when the pendulum swings in the other direction?

The 'other direction' from inclusion, tolerance and liberalism is exclusion, intolerance and conservatism, the first two being bedrock policies of the third one.  

Dave

Re: Richard's game of 'Hangman'.

It should be pointed out that some of us played the game 'off-line', so to speak, as did I in the quiet dignity of my home.   And I would have solved it, too, eventually, if Richard hadn't revealed the answer so quickly.  I was this close....

Perhaps we could revive Richard's game of 'hangman' from a while ago which referred specifically to me.  A_________ F_________ C_________  That was a real toughie considering the number of letters in each word was not given nor any subsequent clues. 

Dave 

....this statement?

"We, Members of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, together denounce white nationalism and white supremacy in all its forms, including the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory. These hateful and dangerous ideologies have no place in the work of the  United States Congress or our Committee."

These people, that's who:

James Comer, Jim Jordan, Mike Turner, Paul Gosar, Virginia Foxx, Glenn Grothman, Gary Palmer, Clay Higgins, Pete Sessions, Andy Biggs, Nancy Mace, Jake LaTurner, pat Fallon, Byron Donalds, Kelly Armstrong, Scott Perry, William Timmons, Tim Burchett, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lisa McClain, Lauren Boebert, Russell Fry, Anna Paulina Luna, Chuck Edwards, Nick Langworthy, and Eric Burlison.

And what do these people have in common?

They are all Republicans.  

Every Democrat signed it, by the way..

Dave

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Ron DeSantos' real job in the navy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soWggOxfN0s

Wow!  that's a real pisser!
Dave

I read the bill, as posted by Richard.  

Its purpose is to make it difficult or even impossible for science teachers to teach Evolutionary Theory in public schools in Montana by forcing the teaching of only "facts".   The teaching of Theory is clearly disallowed.

The opponents of the teaching of Evolutionary Theory often make the fundamental mistake of mistaking "a theory" - a guess or hypothesis in informal or non-scientific speech - for "theory".  "Oh, Evolution is just a theory, not a fact" they say.  But  'theory' in this context actually involves a body of connected knowledge and accepted explanations of a phenomenon or process, based upon a gigantic body of factual observations and subject to change if evidence warrants.   

Plate Tectonic Theory, Gravitational Theory, Quantum Mechanical Theory,  Genetic Theory, Evolutionary Theory, Atomic Theory and so on are each gigantic bodies of individual facts and observations which, taken together, robustly explain the particular phenomenon and lead to accurate and repeatable predictions in those fields.  

The opponents of the teaching of Evolution fall all over themselves to try to appear 'scientific' in their approach.  What they should do is be honest and just say the following:  "Our religion clearly states that  God created life  , not that life evolved from common ancestors and simpler forms.  We insist that our religious view be forced upon everyone."  But they are never this honest.  And so we get bills like the one we are talking about here.

Dave

 

Originally Posted by James Brown

Good post.

On edit, great post.  Well written, Concise.  One for the scrapbook.  There is simply nothing more to say concerning scientific truth, or the motivation of the author of this bill and like minded people.  We are left with just the crumbs of dissecting Rod's motivation for posting this obscure bill as a topic here.

Thanks, Jim.  I occasionally make contact with a pitch and drive it deep off the left field wall.....

Dave